Chase for the cup: why my money's on number 48

[more general travel and race pics here]

Just got back from the stew of humanity that was Auto Club speedway. For what it's worth, the rumours on some track guides about dysfunctional traffic before and after the event were quite unfounded. Only took a matter of minutes to enter the west gates around 2:00 pm, and while the outbound movement always requires more patience, an hour and half to drain out a good portion of the 32,000 spaces is entirely reasonable (having two humongous freeways nearby certainly helped). LAX and Alaska Airlines, on the other hand could use some tips on passenger queuing and processing.

But anyhow, as far as the track action goes, I came away quite confident in predicting a three-peat for the Lowe's team. Partly because we've seen the late charge before, partly because Jimmie drives the season like he drives a race - lay back, wait for the crap to sort out and pick his window to run down the leaders - but mainly because they're the most incredibly meticulous and focussed organization on pit road. I know this from using my Fan Scan to prioritize radio chatter between the 48, 24, 88 and 18 (I also checked in on my boy Carpentier from time to time). I was curious to stick with those four to listen in on how a team typically copes with the dynamic arc of the day-night track conditions. As the results indicate, the latter three were trapped in the high teens through most of the race and much frustrated bellyaching could be heard (particularly from Gordon, man that guy sounds like a prima donna). By contrast, Johnson and Knaus were ice throughout. In addition to continually reviewing lap times, their car was fine-tuned to the nanoscopic level. Every single chord of each horizontal curve was described in terms of how well the car was traversing it. Their reaction to getting down in the pits was no different. After first surrendering the lead, Johnson practically laughed at the desperation of other teams taking on two tires. On the proceeding restart he laid a humiliating stomping on them, reinforcing the confidence of both driver and crew should they get beaten off pit road in the waning moments.

I know I've been one of the first passengers on the Rowdy bandwagon (a.k.a. Rick Hendrick's Biggest Regret), but I have sufficient doubts regarding the championship calibre of that team. It just seems as though Busch has won on pure balls this year, and without him, you've got essentially the same team that bumbled along with J.J. Yeley for the past two seasons. Edwards and Busch should make the playoffs entertaining, but the Lowes machine is just ramping up.